§ MR. BERESFORD HOPEasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether there is any truth in the report that documents have lately been mutilated in the Record Office; and, whether, if the report is true, he will have any objection to lay upon the Table of the House, the Reports of the Deputy Keeper and Assistant Keeper of the Public Records relative to the same, as well as the award of punishment to the offender?
§ MR. BAXTERSir, the Question asked by the hon. Gentleman, will, I think, be better answered if I read to the House a letter from the Master of the Rolls, which he has permitted to be made public—
Public Record Office, Feb. 7, 1872.Sir,—I am sorry to have to inform you, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, that, on the 10th of last month, one of the assistant keepers confided a parcel of Treasury documents of the date 1711–12 to one of the officers of the Record Department under his direction, for the purpose of making a chronological abstract of them, and that when they were returned to him, it appeared that a large piece was torn out of nine of them. This was forthwith reported to me, and as soon as the conclusion of Term afforded me a little leisure, I caused a searching investigation as to the cause and occasion of the damage, when it appeared that the officer to whom the papers were entrusted by some great negligence caused a large quantity of ink to be spilled over the documents, and endeavoured to conceal that circumstance by removing the soiled portion of the papers. On the great penitence expressed by the officer who has occasioned this injury, and his reiterated promise to amend his conduct, and as the dismissal of him would have occasioned utter ruin to him and his family, I have thought that I might take a less step than the removal of the officer; and I have therefore cautioned him, and placed him under strict control, and stopped all his increments of salary until I shall have received a certificate that for two entire years preceding the date of the certificate his conduct has been in all respects unexceptional. It occurred to me that by so doing I should not only be dealing more mercifully with him, but that it would give him a stronger motive to reform his conduct than if I had stopped his increments unconditionally for ever. This is the first time, as far as I know, that any documents under my care, since I was appointed Master of the Rolls in March, 1851, have been injured or mutilated, and as the documents entrusted to me by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, are strictly Treasury Papers, I thought it my duty to communicate the circumstances to their Lordships, but I do not require any acknowledgment of this letter, unless their Lordships think fit to do so.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, ROMILLY.R. R. W. Lingen, Esq., C.B., &c.